"SQL Server Mobile installation works only on the main memory of a device. If an attempt is made to install SQL Server Mobile on SD/CF card, then SQL Server Mobile installation does not work."
| SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Books Online |
Then I found an article about how you can actually install SQL Mobile on a Storage Card. Granted it is a bit of a hack. The info below was sourced from http://www.primeworks-mobile.com/Articles/InstallingSQLCEonStorage.html
Moving SQL Mobile to Storage
The SQL Mobile is not installed in its own subdirectory under Windows - all DLL files are in the \Windows directory but they are easily recognizable: all start with sqlce and end with 30.
If you are using the OLE DB provider, unregister sqlceoledb30.dll before copying all DLL files to \CF Card\Windows. After copying, don't forget to register this DLL again.
Also move the isqlw30.exe file from: \Program Files\SQL Mobile\EN
to: \CF Card\Program Files\SQL Mobile\EN
besides recreating the Program Files link, you will also have to correct the entries in: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\sdffile\DefaultIcon
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\sdffile\Shell\Open\Command
And that's it! (apparently... I am yet to give this a try... )
Anyway this begs the question should anyone really be using SQL Mobile on a CF or SD card. I am guessing from the Microsoft documentation note that they don't support it (MS please feel free to clarify this). The question is why they advise against it? Is this a performance issue? A reliability issue on the software... or does in write to the storage card too often to make it a viable option to use? Or even worse does it go over the boot sector of the card and trash the card completely? If anyone at Microsoft would like to explain the reasoning I would be more than happy to know. It would be interesting to understand why because I can see a lot of uses for storing the data from an SQL Mobile DB on an SD card especially if you want to take it out of one mobile device and just pop it into another to run it...
Comments feedback and info on CF and SD cards and Databases more than welcome! |